Lancaster Catholic vs Bishop McDevitt-District 3 4A Boys Finals

Lancaster Catholic's Devin Atkinson (33) drives to the hoop against Bishop McDevitt during first half action of the PIAA District 3 4A Boys Basketball Championships at the Giant Center in Hershey Thursday Feb. 27, 2020.

 CHRIS KNIGHT Staff Photographer

 

After a four-overtime playoff win for the ages, and a three-hour bus ride back from Altoona, the charter bus carrying the Lancaster Catholic boys basketball team returned to the school’s parking lot around 11:45 p.m. on the night of March 10.

Part of the bus ride back, at least for the coaches, was spent listening to the radio broadcast of the game that 15th-year coach Joe Klazas likely won’t forget, though its sequence of events might be jumbled.

“It was fun still trying to go through the game,” Klazas told LNP|LancasterOnline in an interview the next day at practice. “The remembrance of it and when stuff happened. I remember the play, but was it regulation or overtime, trying to piece that together.”

Another part of the bus ride for Klazas was spent watching film of what was supposed to be Lancaster Catholic’s next opponent. The Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Four and District Three Class 4A champion Crusaders (25-3) were set to face District Twelve runner-up Imhotep Charter (21-8), winners of the previous three 4A state crowns, in a PIAA quarterfinal. The matchup will now never happen. The PIAA on Thursday announced the cancellation of the remainder of winter sports championships — along with the spring sports slate — in the wake of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf closing schools for the remainder of the academic school year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re disappointed that we didn’t get to pursue the ultimate goal," Klazas told LNP|LancasterOnline's Mike Gross on Thursday. "But we’re looking as this season as a fantastic year.’’

A year that was cut short after an entertaining postseason run in which the Crusaders' last four games went down to the wire — three of those decided in the final seconds and two at the buzzer. 

There was Devin Atkinson’s putback tip-in at the horn in the district semifinal victory. Then David Kamwanga’s game-winning, buzzer-beating jumper in the district final at Hershey’s Giant Center. And Ross Conway coming off the bench to score a career-high 21 points, including the go-ahead jump shot in the final 30 seconds of a 3-point first-round state playoff win.

And finally the four-OT epic in which Conway sunk an NBA-range game-tying 3-pointer near the end of the second overtime period, soon followed by Atkinson making the game-winning free throws with 2.6 seconds left in the final extra period.

It was just the sixth game in the history of the PIAA boys basketball playoffs to have gone four overtime periods, and the first in a Class 4A tournament or higher.

It felt as though something magical was happening with the Crusaders.

“A little bit. For sure,” Atkinson told LNP|LancasterOnline before the start of a practice March 11. "I think we all have something in us. We want this.”

Two weeks later, as schools were still closed indefinitely, the realization of the PIAA tournaments likely being over started to sink in for Atkinson.

“It’s heartbreaking knowing we had a chance to do something special,” Atkinson said March 18. “It’s super-hard knowing there was a chance that we could’ve kept going and even had a shot at winning states.”

Atkinson will be the only returning starter from the 2019-20 squad, as the Crusaders will say goodbye to senior starters Kamwanga, Denzel Kabasele, Calan Titus and Trey Wells.

Titus was the unsung point guard who often defended the opposing team's best scorer. Wells, an NCAA Division II West Chester University football lineman recruit, often filled up the box score in the first half either by cleaning up the boards or stroking his consistent 15-foot jump shot.

And the journey for cousins Kabasele and Kamwanga has been a remarkable one. They both began playing basketball in March 2016 at a camp put on by NBA star Serge Ibaka in their native Democratic Republic of the Congo. A few months later, they arrived in the United States not knowing how to speak English, living with their uncle Christian Kalanga, a McCaskey alum.

Kabasele had made it back for his senior campaign after having his junior season wiped out because of a knee injury. Meanwhile, Kamwanga is getting some interest from NCAA Division II programs, and he could've had the chance to up his profile in the next round of the state tournament against Imhotep Charter's 6-8 senior forward Elijah Taylor, a Notre Dame recruit.

The Crusaders were aiming to become just fourth Lancaster Catholic team to reach the state semifinals, and just the second under Klazas.

About a month ago, after that four-OT win, Klazas was asked if he also felt something magical happening.

“I’ve never thought of it that way,” Klazas had said. “But it’s funny. ... You get those thoughts sometimes down the stretch of a game of, ‘How are we going to be able to pull this thing out again?’ It’s a great feeling, believe me. I don’t want to say it’s magical. I want to give these guys a lot of credit for stepping up and doing the things that they have to do, of keeping their composure and playing to the final buzzer, and going out and somehow making a play.”

It's unfortunate they won't have the opportunity to make one more. But it won't diminish what has been a memorable run.

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